REAGAN ASKS INQUIRY INTO SPY DAMAGE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP99-01448R000301310053-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 23, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 22, 2013
• Sequence Number: 53
• Publication Date: April 3, 1987
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/05/22 : CIA-RDP99-01448R000301310053-3
ARTICLE APPEARED
ON PAGE _.2----
Reagan asks
inquiry into
spy damage
By Nicholas M. Horrock
Chicago Tribune
WASHINGTON-President Reagan
has ordered a sweeping assessment of
damage to U.S. national security from
the Marine espionage case, Jonathan Pol-
lard's disclosures to Israel and the Walker
family's Soviet spy ring, according to
well-placed sources.
Sources in the U.S. intelligence com-
munity said the assessment is expected to
be one of the harshest reappraisals of
U.S. communications and intelligence se-
curity since Reagan took office.
It comes after an astounding series of
U.S. security breaches. In less than two
years, the U.S. has seen its embassy in
Moscow penetrated, its naval secrets
compromised by a spy ring, a defection
by a CIA man trained to work in Mos-
cow and boxloads of top-secret. material
turned over to Israel by a spy in naval
intelligence.
According to administration sources,
Reagan was first briefed on the Moscow
embassy espionage case March 26 after
investigators had received information
from Marine Cpl. Arnold Bracy that sug-
gested the damage to U.S. security had
been far more serious than first realized.
The meeting included "all the obvious
people," such as Frank Carlucci, the na-
tional security adviser;.Robert- ates, ac-
ting director of ~the-CI ; an ice resi-
dent George Bush, a former. CIA
director, a source said.
At this meeting, a source said, Reagan
and Bush reacted angrily to an account
of how easily Soviet agents had been able
to enter key. communications and intelli-
gence rooms at the embassy. They
learned that all State Department com-
munications between Washington and
Moscow apparently had been compro-
mised, a source said.
Bush called for a top-to-bottom inqui-
ry, but the decision was withheld until a
second meeting Monday, involving the
same people, in which new details of the
CHICAGO TRIBUNE
3 April 1987
extent of the damage in Moscow
were reported to Reagan. At that
meeting, Reagan instructed that
the major inquiry be conducted
and a report be prepared for him.
"The President is personally
concerned over what he heard," an
administration source said.
Reagan has said nothing publicly
about the matter. But on Wednes-
day, Carlucci said the condition of
U.S. security in the wake of the
Marine episode was "not very
good."
U.S. Ambassador Jack Matlock
arrived in Moscow on Thursday to
take up his post and said he as-
sumed embassy communications
will be secure by the time Secre-
tary of State George Shultz arrives
April 12.
"We assume we will have secure
communications when he's here,"
Matlock said. "I'm not going to
comment on any condition of the
embassy before I see it."
Matlock replaces Arthur Hart-
man, who left Feb. 19 after five
years.
At Quantico, Va., Col. Carmine
Del Grosso, commander of the
unit that trains and assigns the
1,500 embassy guards worldwide,
said Wednesday that government
investigators "are looking at po-
tential leads of people that may
have been mentioned by ... [the
marine] in custody." During a
briefing for reporters, he would
not rule out that other marines
face charges.
Meanwhile, the House Armed
Services Committee, headed by
Rep. Les Aspin [D., Wis.], has
opened an investigation of Marine
security. A task force of intelli-
gence experts from key agencies
has been reviewing the growing
evidence about the Soviet penetra-
tion of the Moscow embassy.
On Jan. 31 the Marines charged
Sgt. Clayton Lonetree, an embassy
guard, with espionage. He alleged-
ly had turned over names and
photos of CIA agents and floor
plans of the embassy to Soviet
operatives.
Last week, the Marines disclosed
that a second guard, Bracy, had
been arrested. They also said.
Lonetree had permitted Soviet
KGB agents free run of the embas-
sy for long periods and had turned
off alarms when the Soviets
tripped them. Bracy and Lonetree
are accused of allowing the agents
to enter the room where classified
messages are decoded.
Bracy and Lonetree, according
to Defense Department sources,
were romantically involved with
Soviet women.
According to counter-intelli-
gence sources, the most serious
breach was allowing the Soviets
into the communications room,
which suggested to analysts that
secret communications were com-
promised. This would mean that
such crucial matters as planning
for the Reykjavik summit meeting
last year had fallen into Soviet
hands.
But a source said the CIA com-
munications equipment in Mos-
cow and other CIA files were
under separate security provisions
and may not have been
penetrated.
According to Robert Lamb, as-
sistant secretary of state for securi-
ty affairs, Bracy was reduced in
rank after it was discovered that
he had a relationship with a Soviet
woman and security investigators
had questioned him extensively
about espionage. But Lamb ac-
knowledged that Bracy's "answers
were accepted too readily. We
have to say we should have pur-
sued that more."
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/05/22 : CIA-RDP99-01448R000301310053-3